A Mother’s Patient Petition

When Rosario left Manila for a nursing job in Sacramento, her daughter Nina was four years old. She is twenty-six now, a teacher in a small school north of Quezon City, and she has never lived under the same roof as her mother for more than a holiday at a time.

Family-based petitions for adult children of citizens are subject to long priority-date queues. There is no fast track. What there is, however, is paperwork — and paperwork that is filed correctly, with the right supporting documentation and the right translations, moves through the system without the back-and-forth that costs years.

Deport Defense’s family-immigration specialist is helping Rosario put together a complete, fully translated petition packet. It will not bend the priority dates. But when Nina’s date arrives, the file will be ready, and the reunion will not be delayed by a misfiled form.